BOLTON’S most famous bakery is 100 years old.

Warburtons is preparing to celebrate a century of baking in the borough and the current chairman, a member of the fifth generation of the family, tells Liam Thorp about his favourite memories in the business as well as what the future holds.

From meeting the Queen to sharing a quiet dinner with Sly Stallone — Jonathan Warburton has seen it all during his time with the family bakery business.

But the chairman’s earliest memory stretches back to his younger years and reminds us that this multi-million pound firm will always remain a family affair.

“The earliest memory I have is of me and my sister, who were three and six years old. We would come into the old bakery with our father and just run around the place,” he tells me.

“You would never be able to do that now with all the health and safety and stuff — but it is certainly a fond memory.”

Fast forward to the present day and the 58-year-old presides over a huge national corporation which employs about 5,000 employees across 25 UK sites — generating annual retail sales of £800 million.

Jonathan is speaking to me from his office, which lies just 800 metres from the small grocery shop in Blackburn Road where his relatives Thomas and Ellen Warburton launched the brand back in 1876.

“Unfortunately we can only use that building for storage now, but it is always interesting to show it to people we invite it — it is great to think of Bolton as a bustling mill town with that shop right at the centre of it," he explains.

The Bolton bakery in Hereford Street, lies next to the current headquarters and was opened by Rachel Warburton 100 years ago.

The fifth generation of the family, including Jonathan and cousins Ross and Brett, now runs the show and over the past 30 years it has established Warburtons on a truly national scale.

“Statistics show that that three per cent of family businesses do not last past the third generation and we are now on to the fifth, Jonathan proudly explains.

“The business has ebbed and flowed over the years, from a little corner shop doing well, to struggles with the business, to doing well again.

“We are now the biggest British grocery brand out there and that has been achieved reflecting our values as a family from Bolton.”

But the family knows it is important to stay ahead of the game and has always believed in the importance of advertising campaigns.

Warburtons surprised everyone earlier this year when it reeled in Hollywood action legend Sylvester Stallone to front its “deliverers” campaign.

In the advert, Sly, famed for film franchises like Rocky and Rambo, leads a crack team which delivers fresh bread from the Bolton bakery to family homes.

The chairman recalls the decision-making process behind the idea, “We basically sat down and thought, who can do this? And how high can we really go? The decision to try and get Sly came from the family, working with the advertisers.

“He did a really great job and it was great to meet him, I will always think of the memory of sitting in a hotel, having a meal with Rocky Balboa — it was very surreal but he was a really nice bloke.”

Another special memory was made when the Queen visited the Bolton site in 2009.

“That was a special moment for me, being able to show her around was a great honour”, says father-of-four Jonathan.

I ask him if his own offspring have shown an interest in taking on the mantle in the same way he and his cousins did 30 years ago.

“My kids are all aged 23 or under and are either finishing at university are have more studying to do.

“What they do know is that if they want to get involved, they will need to go away and get some experience — they can’t come in and find their feet like we did, because the business has changed and grown so much since then.”

It has indeed grown and Jonathan knows that to continue to expand and improve, complacency can never set in.

“We take a 10-year view of the business going forward, which is quite unusual, but it is because our markets are changing all the time.

“People are eating a lot less white sliced bread and want new ideas of what they can eat — we are constantly trying to surprise our customers in a very good way.

“But it is hard work and we have to roll the dice because when we bring in new kit for a new product you are talking about millions of pounds.”

Speaking to Jonathan, who has been chairman since 2001, it is totally apparent that despite the enormous changes that have taken place within the business, he and his cousins are always driven by the family values on which Warburtons was built and that will be reflected in a day of celebrations at the plant on Saturday.

“We will probably have about 750 people coming down to the bakery on the day, but it is more about welcoming in the friends and family of the people who work here and saying well done to the staff.

“It will be a celebration in a modest way with a real family feel because that is what we are have always been about.”